March for Māui This Sunday, 1pm Silo Park, Auckland

A
‘March for Māui’ this Sunday at 1pm from Silo Park,
Auckland, will add to pressure on the Labour-led government
to keep the programme of installing electronic video
monitoring on the fishing fleet and to do more to protect
Māui and Hector’s dolphins from accidental entrapment in
fishing gear.

Māui and Hector’s dolphins are among the
world’s smallest and rarest marine dolphins, with some
subspecies populations as low as around 63 adults (Māui)
and 40 (South Island Otago ‘Pahu’ populations). They
have experienced rapid decline since the 1970s, resulting in
‘critically endangered’ and ‘threatened’ status
under the IUCN threat status classification, and repeated
calls from the International Whaling Commission for New
Zealand to do more to protect them.

Scientists say full
habitat protection is required – out to about 100m deep or
at least 12 nautical miles. Leading up to the last election,
the parties now in the ruling coalition, vowed to improve
protection, but both dolphin and recreational fishing
advocates, say the government is betraying those promises
and threatening to do less, not more.

The Minister of
Fisheries, Stuart Nash, is considering canning the
electronic video monitoring programme which would have
improved transparency and accountability on the fishing
fleet, providing better information about the capture and
dumping of non-target, undersize fish and endangered species
such as Māui and Hector’s and other marine mammals and
sea birds.

The ‘March for Māui’ is part of a wide
expression of dissatisfaction in civil society about the
government’s ‘broken promises’ and failure to oversee
and regulate the fishing industry satisfactorily for
sustainability purposes.

A 2014 economic report
commissioned by the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society,
found that more than 80% of New Zealanders wanted to see
more protection for Māui and Hector’s dolphins, ‘but
this government is suggesting doing less’ says Māui and
Hector’s Dolphin Defenders Chairwoman, Christine
Rose.

‘We’ve lost progress on implementing the
electronic monitoring scheme, despite it being critical to
properly understanding trawling impacts on fish stocks and
dolphin viability’. ‘There is evidence, and anecdotes
from fishers about the scale of dolphins killed, that needs
to be verified for consumers here and overseas to have
confidence about the sustainability of our fishing
sector’. ‘The absence of cameras undermines the ability
for all sides to be confident of fishing impacts, and that
regulation, monitoring and enforcement is in the best
interests of fish stocks and other marine species
survival’. ‘The Labour-led Government is seriously out
of sync with its parties’ pre-election promises, and out
of touch with what the public want’.

‘We call on the
government to do more, not less, to protect Māui and
Hector’s dolphins, and remain of the view that the
Minister’s decision to delay and potentially withdraw
electronic monitoring, is fatally flawed’.

‘Our march
is accompanied by the installation of a large billboard
condemning government inaction which is killing our
dolphins, on Auckland’s Northern Motorway’. ‘It’s
accompanied by petitions and lobbying from other NGOs such
as WWF NZ, Forest and Bird, and LegaSea’.

Some in
society question whether election donations from Talley’s
and other conflicts of interests are having undue influence
in fisheries management decisions. ‘We’ve heard
allegations that Shane Jones, who has openly declared
donations from Talley’s, is exerting pressure on Stuart
Nash, affecting this decision’, says Mrs Rose. ‘Whatever
Nash’s reasons, they’re scientifically and morally
unfounded, unsustainable, and untenable if many of our
endangered marine species are to survive –Māui and
Hector’s but also sea lions and sea birds’.

‘That’s why we’ll be marching for Māui tomorrow,
with effigies of Shane Jones and Stuart Nash, and will
continue to pressure the government for better protection of
Māui and Hector’s, in the interests of openness and
accountability on the fishing fleet, and honesty and
integrity in
government’.ENDS

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